Hi,

Below is the text I sent with a few pictures to the metalworking.com
dropbox. I also have the pictures at:

http://home.comcast.net/~invckb/vernon/

I have never done anything with newsgroups, so forgive me if I am
violating etiquette.

Anyway, Thanks, Gunner!

Cheers,
Keith

Hi,

A guy named Gunner suggested I add these pictures and a description of
the mill to this archive.

In March 2004, I responded to a craigslist.com ad for a Horizontal
Milling machine. It turned out it was a Vernon Horizontal Miller.
The guy, Phil, was in Antioch/Pittsburg, which is a reasonable
distance from my home in Sunnyvale, California.

I had just started looking for a horizontal mill so I could learn
about saw cuts for a business application. Deckel & Hardinge are
pricey, so I was looking for an off-brand. This looked like the one.

I called the guy up, and not having any real tests in mind, just
agreed to buy it. It had some tooling included. I did a web search
and found sources for the Brown & Sharpe #9 taper items, so at least I
could do something with it once I got it.

Having moved heavy items before, I saved myself a lot of trouble and
rented a box truck with a lift gate and some straps. No interesting
tales of rigging here. Been there, done that. Now I just spend the
money and get it done without wrenching my back.

I got the thing in my garage, and fired it up. One of the selling
points is that it has a single phase 110V motor. It had a 3"
precision vise on it, so I chucked in an included saw and cut some
aluminum. Sweet.

I put an indicator on, and all the ways were within a 0.001" per
travel. I went to measure spindle TIR, and problems hit.

I couldn't get the 1" arbor out of the spindle. I did the tapping
with a deadblow, and then went to town a couple of times with a
deadblow/brass hammer. The drawbar sheared. I tried liquid wrench
and stronger hammers, but the thing wasn't budging.

Phil, (the guy who sold me the thing), told me about his rigging
experience with Gunner (the original owner). I did a quick search,
and found Gunner's website, which still had a picture of the Vernon.

I sent him an email asking about the spindle. I had convinced myself
that there was some necking down at then end of the taper, and hitting
on the old drawbar was just hitting the neck, not the arbor.

I got a reply saying sorry, he should have removed the arbor before
storing the thing. If I sent him the spindle, he would get the arbor
out. I had taken out the spindle by this time, because I was worried
about the Timken bearings.

I sent Gunner the spindle. Because of the downtime with the new toy,
I decided to paint the thing. I pulled the knee assembly off, and
broke down rest into the top, tray, and base. I hit them with a
course foam sanding pad from Harbor Freight, and then sprayed them
with my new $12 HF low pressure sprayer. I used Rustoleum, and,
although I had to turn up the air to over the sprayer's limit, the
paint job came out really nice. Compared to spray cans, the HF
sprayer is tits.

The knee was a PITA. All of the connections were tapered pins, and
everything was so grimy that I was flushing buckets of grungy Simple
Green by the half hour. It was nice to bond with my new machine, but
sometimes you wonder about the time spent. I chucked a lot of parts
into my little chinese lathe, so polishing went fast. I painted the
rest with brushes, and, aside from taking longer to dry, it went well.
I will never use a spray can again.

About the time the paint dried, the spindle came back. Gunner said it
took 18 tons in a press to get the thing out. The building shook when
it popped. As always, you need to keep guys who can do things like
that in your address book. Thanks, Gunner! He even made me a really
nice new drawbar for the arbor.

I've been hogging on cast iron angle plates to attach a Bridgeport M
head. I got one off of Ebay that has a high speed spindle (12,500
rpm), which is another part of my learning about machining processes.
I threw in a preliminary picture of that, too.

Cheers,
Keith, Sunnyvale, California

Keith
That Vernon is looking good. I have a Sheldon shaper that also has the
switch down low like yours. I'm not sure if you have a clutch on the
spindle or not but if not you may want to get the switch in a better
location. When the stuff hit the fan you don't want to be diving under the
machine to shut it down. I also hope that you have a motor rated switch in
there. Keep up the good work and keep us posted on the vertical head
installation.
lg
no neat sig line

"invckb" wrote in message
m...
Hi,

Below is the text I sent with a few pictures to the metalworking.com
dropbox. I also have the pictures at:

http://home.comcast.net/~invckb/vernon/

I have never done anything with newsgroups, so forgive me if I am
violating etiquette.

Anyway, Thanks, Gunner!

Cheers,
Keith

Hi,

A guy named Gunner suggested I add these pictures and a description of
the mill to this archive.

In March 2004, I responded to a craigslist.com ad for a Horizontal
Milling machine. It turned out it was a Vernon Horizontal Miller.
The guy, Phil, was in Antioch/Pittsburg, which is a reasonable
distance from my home in Sunnyvale, California.

I had just started looking for a horizontal mill so I could learn
about saw cuts for a business application. Deckel & Hardinge are
pricey, so I was looking for an off-brand. This looked like the one.

I called the guy up, and not having any real tests in mind, just
agreed to buy it. It had some tooling included. I did a web search
and found sources for the Brown & Sharpe #9 taper items, so at least I
could do something with it once I got it.

Having moved heavy items before, I saved myself a lot of trouble and
rented a box truck with a lift gate and some straps. No interesting
tales of rigging here. Been there, done that. Now I just spend the
money and get it done without wrenching my back.

I got the thing in my garage, and fired it up. One of the selling
points is that it has a single phase 110V motor. It had a 3"
precision vise on it, so I chucked in an included saw and cut some
aluminum. Sweet.

I put an indicator on, and all the ways were within a 0.001" per
travel. I went to measure spindle TIR, and problems hit.

I couldn't get the 1" arbor out of the spindle. I did the tapping
with a deadblow, and then went to town a couple of times with a
deadblow/brass hammer. The drawbar sheared. I tried liquid wrench
and stronger hammers, but the thing wasn't budging.

Phil, (the guy who sold me the thing), told me about his rigging
experience with Gunner (the original owner). I did a quick search,
and found Gunner's website, which still had a picture of the Vernon.

I sent him an email asking about the spindle. I had convinced myself
that there was some necking down at then end of the taper, and hitting
on the old drawbar was just hitting the neck, not the arbor.

I got a reply saying sorry, he should have removed the arbor before
storing the thing. If I sent him the spindle, he would get the arbor
out. I had taken out the spindle by this time, because I was worried
about the Timken bearings.

I sent Gunner the spindle. Because of the downtime with the new toy,
I decided to paint the thing. I pulled the knee assembly off, and
broke down rest into the top, tray, and base. I hit them with a
course foam sanding pad from Harbor Freight, and then sprayed them
with my new $12 HF low pressure sprayer. I used Rustoleum, and,
although I had to turn up the air to over the sprayer's limit, the
paint job came out really nice. Compared to spray cans, the HF
sprayer is tits.

The knee was a PITA. All of the connections were tapered pins, and
everything was so grimy that I was flushing buckets of grungy Simple
Green by the half hour. It was nice to bond with my new machine, but
sometimes you wonder about the time spent. I chucked a lot of parts
into my little chinese lathe, so polishing went fast. I painted the
rest with brushes, and, aside from taking longer to dry, it went well.
I will never use a spray can again.

About the time the paint dried, the spindle came back. Gunner said it
took 18 tons in a press to get the thing out. The building shook when
it popped. As always, you need to keep guys who can do things like
that in your address book. Thanks, Gunner! He even made me a really
nice new drawbar for the arbor.

I've been hogging on cast iron angle plates to attach a Bridgeport M
head. I got one off of Ebay that has a high speed spindle (12,500
rpm), which is another part of my learning about machining processes.
I threw in a preliminary picture of that, too.

Cheers,
Keith, Sunnyvale, California

http://home.comcast.net/~invckb/vernon/

I added a couple of picts with the M head bolted on. I need to get an
indicator holder that fits in a collet so I can true it up. Measuring
off of the quill, I made sure that I can handle the theta with the
clearance in the M head bolts, and the other direction can be handled
with some fine shim between the head and the angle plate.

The M head came with a big one HP 3,600 rpm three phase motor. I have
a whole bunch of servo stuff from some equipment I dismanted, so I was
originally going to servo the thing. The servo drives are single
phase in, three out. Somewhere along the line, I found a drawing
showing how the pulley arrangement in a Bridgeport head is used to
cool the motor. I thought it might overheat if I turned the speed
down, so it is going to get a newer one HP servo, adapted to the
original motor baseplate.

I tried turning a shaft, 16mm to 20mm to 0.75", but I think I need a
steady rest to do it. I kept getting slight tapers toward the center
of the shaft. I am now going to replace the metric bearing in the
motor base with a 0.75" one, and turn a sleeve to adapt the OD of the
new bearing with the cavity in the base. I just have to turn a .75"
shaft down to 16mm for a coupling, which shouldn't tax my skills or my
lathe.

I was going to replace the switch with a mushroom emergency off switch
in a more convenient location, but I decided that I might need reverse
someday. I am looking around for a fwd-off-rvs switch.

I'll post again in a couple of weeks when I get the M head running.

Cheers, Keith

Pretty nice job on the M head mount. I hadn't thought of that method
when I mounted an M head on my Vernon. Gives you quite a bit larger
envelope than I have. Mine's on Ebay at the moment...Item#3807349018

Rex the Wrench



invckb wrote:
http://home.comcast.net/~invckb/vernon/

I added a couple of picts with the M head bolted on. I need to get an
indicator holder that fits in a collet so I can true it up. Measuring
off of the quill, I made sure that I can handle the theta with the
clearance in the M head bolts, and the other direction can be handled
with some fine shim between the head and the angle plate.

The M head came with a big one HP 3,600 rpm three phase motor. I have
a whole bunch of servo stuff from some equipment I dismanted, so I was
originally going to servo the thing. The servo drives are single
phase in, three out. Somewhere along the line, I found a drawing
showing how the pulley arrangement in a Bridgeport head is used to
cool the motor. I thought it might overheat if I turned the speed
down, so it is going to get a newer one HP servo, adapted to the
original motor baseplate.

I tried turning a shaft, 16mm to 20mm to 0.75", but I think I need a
steady rest to do it. I kept getting slight tapers toward the center
of the shaft. I am now going to replace the metric bearing in the
motor base with a 0.75" one, and turn a sleeve to adapt the OD of the
new bearing with the cavity in the base. I just have to turn a .75"
shaft down to 16mm for a coupling, which shouldn't tax my skills or my
lathe.

I was going to replace the switch with a mushroom emergency off switch
in a more convenient location, but I decided that I might need reverse
someday. I am looking around for a fwd-off-rvs switch.

I'll post again in a couple of weeks when I get the M head running.

Cheers, Keith

In article , Rex the Wrench says...

Pretty nice job on the M head mount. I hadn't thought of that method
when I mounted an M head on my Vernon. Gives you quite a bit larger
envelope than I have. Mine's on Ebay at the moment...Item#3807349018

No kidding, that *is* a sweet execution. I just plastered a flange
on the end of a piece of round stock for the M head on my hardinge,
and I do wish I had more room under the spindle.

Jim

==================================================
please reply to:
JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com
==================================================

Mine's on Ebay at the moment...Item#3807349018
Rex the Wrench

It's good to see that they are worth something. I have been getting
worried about all how much I have been spending. I wish I had the
autofeed stuff.

I was worried about having to put in a lot of shim or do some tricky
machining to tram in the head with the angle plates, but the
tolerances in the plates end up cancelling out when they are opposed.

In one of my more gifted moments, I figured out a neat way to make the
holes in the mill. I put a hunk of Delrin in the vise, and used the
mill to drill a 1/2" hole in the Delrin. I lubed up a drill chuck
with a 1/2" shaft, stuck it through the hole pointing toward the mill,
and chucked it in my hand drill. It was easy to line up the drill to
the transfer punch marks, and the 'Y' on the table controlled the
depth. The holes came out perpendicular; I only needed to add 1/32"
to the diameter of the bolt holes for clearance.

Cheers,
Keith

Nice mill...you will love it! I would point out that the
Diamond/Vernon/Sheldon horizontal mill is one of the best smaller
horizontal mills around.

Excellent mounting job on the vertical head. Good variation on the
regular "mount head on arbor support" theme one usually sees and well
worth the two holes that were needed to be drilled in the mill to
mount the lower bracket.

For the autofeed, several HSMers have built electrical powerfeeds with
variable speeds for this mill. Any of the homebuilt autofeed versions
that you see posted for the Atlas horizontal mill or the Asian
minimills with suitable scaling up would work well. Perhaps one of the
builders of these autofeeds could chime in and discuss what they have
implemented.

Good luck with the mill and please continue to post what mods you make
to this great machine.

TMT






(invckb) wrote in message . com...
Mine's on Ebay at the moment...Item#3807349018
Rex the Wrench

It's good to see that they are worth something. I have been getting
worried about all how much I have been spending. I wish I had the
autofeed stuff.

I was worried about having to put in a lot of shim or do some tricky
machining to tram in the head with the angle plates, but the
tolerances in the plates end up cancelling out when they are opposed.

In one of my more gifted moments, I figured out a neat way to make the
holes in the mill. I put a hunk of Delrin in the vise, and used the
mill to drill a 1/2" hole in the Delrin. I lubed up a drill chuck
with a 1/2" shaft, stuck it through the hole pointing toward the mill,
and chucked it in my hand drill. It was easy to line up the drill to
the transfer punch marks, and the 'Y' on the table controlled the
depth. The holes came out perpendicular; I only needed to add 1/32"
to the diameter of the bolt holes for clearance.

Cheers,
Keith